Calling all Keggers

[RidingDonkeys]

I'm a n00b to brewing, but love it and and jumping in head first. I'm four batches deep and jumped the gun on buying a kegerator yesterday. Now I need help.

What I have is a True commercial kegerator. It's got two cooled towers, plumbing, and a CO2 tank with a regulator. Now comes the questions and the work.

First, what do you experienced guys suggest I do before going hot with this thing? Any sort of maintenance, cleaning, pressure tests, etc?

Second, what all is required to make the move to corny kegs? While I have the capacity for larger kegs, I think having multiple small kegs with a variety of beers would be more fun.

I'm in no rush here. I just want to make sure I get it right the first time, so I welcome all thoughts and suggestions.

 

[jester5120]

buy a bunch of corney kegs and the proper connections for the liquid and gas. fill your corney kegs up with sanitizer to sanitize the kegs. Then open up the taps to sanitize them and the beer lines also.

 

[TrubDog]

I'd replace all the liquid and gas lines and purchase the correct QDs that match the Corny's you purchase. Lastly, remove, disassemble and clean/sanitize the faucets. They only take a minute to remove and take apart.

 

[Slipgate]

If you have the whole setup, you should try to find some 1/6 commercial kegs. They are roughly the same size as cornelious kegs and will fit your sankey taps. If you can't find them or they are too much, then consider converting to cornies. But I see no reason to convert just for the sake of converting.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

So I have a few 7.5 gallon kegs. These are functional for home brew? I only brew 5gal batches and I figured the extra headspace in the larger kegs might create issues.

If not, then I'm much closer to kegging than I originally thought.

 

[Slipgate]

Sure! Just purge initially with CO2. You have an increasing amount of headspace as you drink your beer anyway.

 

[luke2080]

Yep - just use your Sanke kegs. Learn to open/clean/sanitize them. Use sanitzer in keg to pour the sanitizer through the system. Fill keg with beer, hook up to C02 - let sit for 2 weeks to carb up. Drink. Repeat.

The only problem you may have, is keeping one beer flowing while another is carbing. You can always buy more gas lines or another CO2 tank in the future for this though.